Embrace The Mad Genius...

Recently, my family was on an impromptu vacation, wandering the hills and sites of Chattanooga.  It’s close to home and one of those places that we always drive through on the way to someplace else, so why not?

 Chattanooga, if you’re not familiar, has a landscape of mountains and valleys and is under 150 miles from Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham, and so on.  Geography historically made it a desirable place to set up camp.  First for the Cherokees, and then for soldiers and miners.  So, my family set up camp (in a motel with a pool and breakfast buffet) for a few days. 

Mother Nature did a fabulous job designing the area but human nature is to tinker and make changes and improvements that suit whims or needs of the moment.  So while the caverns, waterfalls, and mountain ridges were pretty great on their own, man made them accessible and more comfortable for other humans to enjoy.  Not so coincidentally, these adaptations created money flow. 

As a tourist, I appreciate these “upgrades” and embrace them.  However, because my brain works the way it does, I always find myself marveling at the creativity and tenacity of the people behind the technology instead of the natural beauty in front of me.  We know why the railroad was built.  We know why and how roads were constructed.  We can kind of understand the need for the cable rail that goes a mile up the side of a mountain. 

Tour guides can explain the reasoning behind the technology and can talk about the challenges or obstacles on the way to the top, or to the bottom to the falls.  But they never really shed light on the mad genius behind it all.  That’s the tour I want to take. 

What made that chemist tunnel under ground for 17 hours in the first place?  When the first hang glider strapped himself to wings and launched off the side of a mountain, how sure of himself was he?   

I think maybe I come from a long line of natural tinkerers.  Grandparents, uncles, brothers, and cousins who, when met with a problem, figure out a way to keep getting the work done.  It’s not so uncommon.  My grandmother figured out how to make her own tin cookie cutters (and sold them to neighborhood housewives) when such things weren’t readily available during war rationing.  My grandfather, working in a meat packing company, suggested that White Castle poke small holes in their burger patties to speed up line cooks (he received a cash reward and they are still made that way), and my mother can create the perfect box or packaging for whatever she needs with cardboard scraps. 

Those are all very practical things.  But what about the weird and/or fun stuff?  That’s where my brothers come in.  Brother Ken once created a very elaborate system to reach around a corner and across a room for the sole purpose of swiping frosting off of a cake that was being closely guarded.  Why?  Probably just because he could and seemed like fun.  That was the only reward. 

I’m always most impressed by the people who create not out of need, but for the fun of it.  I wish I had that in me.  I absolutely have the creativity and have countless zany ideas in any given moment.  I just don’t have the drive to see it to fruition.

 

When we strolled through Rock City and heard the tale of the man who turned a rough natural treasure into a fairyland garden, I was moved by the vision of this local guy who recognized a resource and turned it into something grand.  Perhaps I was just in the right frame of mind to notice, in one of the many gift shops, this little gem!

It is exactly what it appears to be:  a retired cigarette machine – the kind once found in every bar or restaurant in the country – but with a new purpose!  This particular machine is an “Art-O-Mat”, vending handmade goodies from local artists.  Hand crafted soaps, oil paintings (which, I imagine, are probably small), jewelry, etc.  There was even a Mystery selection, so who knows what your five bucks could have gotten!

 

Now, my focus was off of the rocks and rope bridges.  I wanted to know about the mad genius behind this object!  Because this is just the kind of thing I would create in my head but that would never actually happen.  1. I’m lazy by nature and 2. I’m easily distracted so the first time my idea was rejected, I’d certainly drop it. 

I think the world would be a much happier place if we appreciated and encouraged our mad geniuses more.  True, this recycled vending machine isn’t solving world hunger or global warming, but it’s definitely spreading whimsy and encouraging the growth of ideas into reality.  And who knows, maybe it’s the thinkers of this variety that are going to save us all!